i got a masters degree for this?

So I went on my very first Inventory Observation for work.  It's a classic assignment for a first year.  They're the reason I'm not allowed to be out of town for both Christmas and New Year's.  (Yes, I am in fact scheduled for an IO at 6am on January 1st while the rest of the firm is given a pad day off.)

My first IO assignment was for a cement plant in Vancouver, WA.  Before going, I got an e-mail telling me that I needed steel-toed shoes for safety requirements.  Umm, what?  How do I even process that information?  Where do you

 buy steel-toed shoes?  After some googling and phones calls (slow afternoon at work) I found the cheapest available option at Fred Meyer.  $35 for a men's size 8 1/2 that I definitely charged through to the firm.

I show up in Vancouver, expecting an hour and a half of counting rocks before I'm done.  4 1/2 hours, many piles of rocks, 2 silos, and 17 cement trucks later, I was all done.  And ready to spend several more hours documenting the experience of course.  It was freezing cold and raining and I was stuck wearing too-big ugly shoes, a hard hat, safety goggles, and a bright orange vest.  Hott.

My favorite part of the day was climbing to the top of the silo to drop a tape measure down and figure out how far up the cement 

(or flysash) goes.  There was this super narrow metal ladder (enclosed in a cage to prevent falling all the way off) that I had to climb up in three sections.  They gave me special grip gloves so I didn't slip and fall due to the rain and large shoes.  And I still have a muddy pair of steel toed shoes in the trunk of my car because I have no idea what to do with them.  Amazing.